Benefit set to ease the Mezzatesta family

Friends are trying to ease the burdens of a Petrolia family after an accident claimed the life their wife and mother.

Danielle Mezzatesta lost her life in a horrific car accident on Churchill Line earlier this year, leaving behind her husband, Jamie and their three boys, Ian, Isaac and Elliot.
Danielle was a OB RPN Nurse in Point Edward. Her husband, Jamie works at Waterville and their three boys attend Petrolia schools.

Claudine Thompson Krale is one of the Jamie’s co-workers who is organizing a benefit Saturday night at the Petrolia Legion. The idea is to ease financial burden’s for the family as they deal with their grief and to set up trust funds for the boys.

Thompson Krale was working at Waterville the day they learned of the accident. “We were just in shock and thinking about Jamie,” she says. “We couldn’t believe it was so close to home.”

Thompson Krale says donations for the family were taken on the plant floor, but some of Jamie’s friends wanted to do more. “A couple of his good friends that he hung out with they said we’d like to put a benefit together,” she says.

The plans came together including bands, raffles and draws to raise money for the family and the organizers are hoping for a good turn out Saturday.

Thompson Krale says people who have talked with Jamie – who has yet to return to work – say he’s amazed by the support. “He’s extremely overwhelmed; he can’t believe how much family and love and support there was, how his friends have come together.”